BIRDS OF PREY. 



175 



A much smaller and far more destructive bird is 

 the common Pigeon-hawk, also a true falcon, and 

 abreast of any of its fellows in all falconine traits. 

 It is a northern species that comes southward in 

 autumn, and as single birds, or in pairs, wander 

 about where there are small birds in abundance. 

 They are very fatal to the flocks of horned larks, 

 chase flocks of blackbirds until they scatter them, 

 and have been known to enter dove-cots and destroy 

 the pigeons. Wilson supposes that they do not winter 

 in the Middle States, but this is an error. 



The Sparrow-hawk is everywhere, and equally 

 happy whether the thermometer registers zero or 

 1 00 in the shade. Give it a chance to go mousing 

 and it asks nothing, except per- 

 haps an opportunity to vary its 

 diet with a sparrow. 



I do not know that these beau- 

 tiful birds care much for dense 

 forests, and I seldom have seen 

 them in our great tide-water 

 marshes ; but is there a field in 

 the whole land over which, at 

 some time, they have not hov- 

 ered? Their flight is not ma- 

 jestic like the eagle's, nor as er- 

 ratic as the swallow's, but there 

 is a grace in their movements, a 

 general " at-homeness," if I may 

 coin the word, in the air that is 

 delightful to witness. Darting with apparent reck- 

 lessness across the field, suddenly the bird stops, 



Sparrow-hawk. 



